What Quetta Bombing Reveals About Islamic State and Pakistani Taliban

At least 70 people were killed when Quetta’s Civil Hospital was targeted for an attack on Monday. Quetta is the capital of Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan province, which is the hub of a separatist movement, a military operation, and a freely operating jihadist network. In May, the previous Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the province.

Both Islamic State (ISIS) and the Taliban faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JA) have claimed responsibility for Monday’s bombing, which targeted protestors that had gathered in the local hospital to demonstrate against Balochistan Bar Association President Bilal Anwar Kasi’s killing. It is not the first time ISIS and a Taliban faction have unanimously owned a terror attack. In May last year ISIS and Jundallah claimed responsibility for killing 43 members of the minority Ismaili Shia community in a bus attack in Karachi. Continue reading.